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Okay so for the personal / strategy stuff regarding our satellite for this here personal poker blog.
First and foremost on my mind was that there was ZERO reason to get involved in big hands early on. We were starting with 80,000 in chips, an absolutely absurd amount, and mirroring the Main structure exactly, also absurd considering that the actual Main starts players with only 50K. The big difference in structure though that we did have was half hour levels instead of two hour levels. Still, I knew that I needed to cool it early and play super tight.
I was somewhat surprised, but not at all shocked, that some of the other 7 guys came right out of the gate firing multiple barrels, bloating pots and blasting away. Although it was not the strategy I was adopting, it was still impressive to see such aggression. I have to say, if it wasn't going to be me, I would still feel pretty good with any one of these guys going to the big dance, they were fearless!
Most impressive early on was Andrew, a regular at my home game now for at least 5 years, he had for sure brought his A game and c-bet large and often, accumulating early on and setting the tone for the rest of the table.
Other players that stuck out in those first few hours, Marc bluffed me off of a hand pre-flop. He showed me what he had done afterwards and I was both irritated and delighted - irritated at folding the best hand, delighted that he had such a naked bluff in his arsenal. He is known as one of the tighter players in our group.
Eric L. also had brought his a-game. He's the fellow who binked 10K for us at last years WSOP. His game has come incredibly far in the last two years. I am super proud that our study group has had a lot to do with that. Eric L. has good aggression in the right spots, and a lovely stickiness and reluctance to fold that when honed and refined just a little bit more will make him an exceptionally dangerous player.
And then there's Tony. Tony has a great natural feel for the game, a really nice instinct that I likely will never have. I have been playing with him for over 20 years and he still sniffs out my bluffs and manages to pull bluffs on me as well every once in awhile.
But Tony has a problem - he is still enamored with the idea that Sasquatch is real.
In other words, he genuinely believes in a sixth sense that will guide him to make the correct decisions, irregardless of probability or numbers.
Now I love the guy, and as I said, I genuinely admire his intuitive feel for the game, it's a trait I wish I had been born with. But he really takes it too far, and nothing I say to him seems to sway this idea that he has a direct link to the poker gods and that he calls on it to make decisions. Witness this amazing excerpt from one of our many e-mail exchanges...
" I know you don’t really think “gut instincts” factor into much of the poker decision-making process, but I do. I’ve experienced too many situations where I sense something is going to happen and it does, or I feel like I’m going to hit my card and it hits, or I feel like I’m NOT going to hit my card and I’m right.
On Saturday (yesterday) I was playing in Steve's home game and I had a pretty big chip stack. A young lady to my right went all in with an amount of chips that was equal to a quarter of my stack. I looked down and found AQ suited. I thought to myself, I’m not going to win with this hand because she probably has a pair, but I have to call because at this point in the tournament with this hand and my stack, it’s almost an auto-call. I also pictured you and the rest of the Pepper Street Crew telling me “shove, shove, shove you idiot!
I made the call and of course her 4-4 held and I doubled her up. This is the type of thing that happens to me over and over again. I think if I sprinkle in this “sixth sense” along with good, solid thinking and planning from you and the rest of the group, I’ll start playing better. I also know what you’re thinking right now and it’s not very nice! (hahaha)"
The good news is that he is self aware and understands how ridiculous he sounds to me and the other guys. But the bad news is, he will not change the fundamental problem - which is relying on guidance from a higher power to make difficult decisions.
Now I am a person of faith, I believe in God and all that - but I also believe that God wants nothing to do with my degeneracy and could not give less of a shit about my poker habit.
The only thing that works in poker for me is hard work and hard numbers. I am comforted by the simple truth that math is cold and indifferent - it doesn't care about my feelings, it doesn't care that my aces get cracked all in pre-flop by a pair of sixes. It certainly doesn't care that when I fold 8d3s sometimes the flop comes 888. All math 'cares' about in the long run, is the long run - that is, making correct decisions.
When we make correct decisions mathematically, we will win. In the LONG run. Not necessarily on that particular hand.
Letting go and letting God is a good way to live one's life, and I believe it is also true of poker. You have to make the best decision you can, and then not get too upset over short term results that are often determined by luck.
I'm going to play in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker on July 3rd 2018. I understand that I may be lucky and sit down to a table of recreational players or I may get unlucky and find myself at a table of doom with high roller grinders. Most likely it will be a mix. But in any case, my only jobs are to savor the experience and make the best decisions I can based on the information I have - one hand at a time.
I can't get worried when I have 21 big blinds towards the end of Day 1 and I look down at JJ from the cutoff and an active player two seats to my right opens 3x. My only decision there is to stick it in. Period.
I can't look to the heavens and imagine in my head - "This feels weird. It seems like he has aces. I should fold." OR "This feels weird, it seems like he has AQ. I don't want to flip. I need to fold." OR "I should probably see a flop and then shove if no over cards hit."
Those are all TERRIBLE notions, driven by emotion and nothing more than the random firing of random synapses in my tired brain at the end of a long day of poker. I need to tune those right out and already have a plan in place before I even look at my cards.
"That guy has been opening a lot. I'm ripping here with all premiums, AJs and 77+. Anything else I'm folding." I look down and it's JJ. INSTA SHOVE NO REGRETS THAT'S POKER THE END.
So the whole point of this entire tangent was that Tony busted WAY earlier than he should have.
After a couple of tough beats, in hands that he played just fine, he got pretty steamed and the next thing we know he four bet pre-flop with 77 and 50 big blinds behind and then CALLED to Andrew's five bet shove!
Naturally Andrew had AA and that was that.
Absolutely horrific call, (not crazy about the 4 bet either) and driven entirely by emotion and the random brain fart notion that Andrew was full of shit.
Andrew had been aggressive, he certainly was 3 betting wider than just premium holdings. But really, not really.
Andrew is a very good aggressive player who knows how to accumulate with little risk to his stack. He had been pounding away at the table for almost 3 full hours - but his betting and sizing (though a bit large for my personal tastes) always gave him room to maneuver and extricate himself if he got into trouble.
In other words, he's not sticking in his stack against a 50 blind stack with nothing less than a premium.
No amount of "I didn't think you had it" will ever overcome that fundamental, MATHEMATICAL, truth.
Anyways, the point here isn't to bash on a dear friend that I do truly love - but to illustrate for myself and everyone how far afield emotions can take us. We need to allow ourselves to feel at the poker table yes, we are all only human, and instinct will always play a part. But instinct needs to be driven by and also tempered by careful thought and planning that's based on math and probability.
Otherwise we end up calling off 50+ big blinds with pocket sevens.
So with Tony's exit there were 7 of us remaining. Tony was pretty shook, but truthfully I knew that 6 of us would also be facing the same result, and the closer each of us got to the prize the more painful it would be. In no small way Tony had gotten off easy.
My mind gets a bit fuzzier recalling the next string of bust outs. I believe it was Marc who succumbed to a bad beat at the hands of yours truly, I could be wrong, but I remember getting a good price to chase my draw which hit on the river. I don't think I busted him but I did cripple him as he found a call on fifth street with his over pair. He was out shortly thereafter.
We then broke for dinner and all of the sudden everyone wasn't super deep any more.
The two Eric's busted out shortly after we got back, I don't remember in which order or how. But I will say that Eric L. more than once made light calls that dented his stack pretty badly.
Most impressively, Eric L. has confided in me that a leak he sees in his own game is his overvaluing and over playing over pairs. I know he works hard on his game and I know he will improve the timing of this tendency as he plays more and more.
Eric T. had played very well and very patiently, in a similar style to me, but he never found a moment to flip the switch. That is, as we all must do in poker tournaments, shift gears and get more aggressive. At one point he had a pretty good stack, and he needed to kick it up a notch and start accumulating.
Instead he would open somewhat infrequently and then shut it down if he missed the flop. He would also check call if he was drawing and then surrender on fourth or fifth street if he missed or the betting from his opponent got too painful.
That said, Eric T. is a solid player and has gone deep in the WSOP and brought home monies for the group a few years back. He has played poker a lot and has a great intuition based on that experience. He is capable of bluffing when he needs to and he is pretty good at sniffing out bluffs as well. If he had been blessed with better cards he for sure could have brought this one home.
My only criticism of his game is that he doesn't c-bet nearly often enough. If he was balancing his check backs with made hands that would be okay, but usually when he checks back the flop it means he has missed. Then all his opponent has to do, and I've done it more than once, is wait for a scare card to roll off on the turn and river and then fire away. More often than not he will release. Hopefully he reads this and adjusts!
Then there was just four of us. Four formidable players; Jeff G., another WSOP vet who can be infuriatingly sticky when he has chips. Andrew, the aforementioned aggressive grinder. And Jason, my long time poker confidante who is as capable of emptying the clip (triple barrel bluffing) as any top tournament pro.
I believe I was somewhere in the middle of the group with my stack, but as soon as it got four handed I threw the switch and start opening pots a lot wider. I was also very good about c-betting against single opponents when I whiffed - thankfully, as I had hoped, the table was tightening up as the top prize got closer.
Jeff G. busted first, he had been unable to get much traction or too big a stack - thank goodness, despite his deadly ability to call light and hit out of position; I managed to avoid getting smacked too hard by his wide range and capable betting.
Surprisingly it was Andrew who exited in third - literally a hand or two after Jeff's exit. I don't remember specifically the hand or even who knocked him out; but I can say pretty confidently that there was nothing untoward about it. I think on the day Andrew had played better than all of us, and it was truly the luck of the draw that saw him finishing third. Now I'm all the sudden remembering that earlier on he took a huge hit against Jason when I was in the house going to the little boys room. I think that's right, but I'm not 100%.
And so then it was just Jason and myself.
The sun had gone down and we truly went at it ferociously. One thing (of many) that I love about the guy is that we always play our hardest against each other and we both still care very much about each other afterwards. This time was certainly no exception.
I was up at first, then I took a hit when I looked him up light on a river that didn't complete any draws. He had my top pair middling kicker beat quite handily with a very made hand, I kind of leveled myself into paying him off.
Discussions were then had for a little bit about a possible split of the money - and both of us going to the Main, with me as the slight chip leader still representing PSP and putting up the difference myself or something. Honestly, the hour was late and I know neither of us really wanted to miss out on the chance to go - I'm not sure either of us was really thinking it through clearly.
At any rate, we carried on without an agreement in place, and I was able - and I don't think I'm revealing anything here that Jason probably doesn't already know - to chip up simply by keeping my foot on the gas. I bluffed as often as I thought I could get away with. I know he did as well. Both of us played fairly aggressive and did our best not to give an inch.
In the end it truly did come down to the cards, I remember winning a big pot because my draw got there on the turn and Jason had TPTK or similar. Afterwards he was short the money went in with me dominated and I sucked out to take it down.
I've already described my elation - but what I didn't mention at the time of my writing is that I was actually so bowled over that I ended up taking a 2 week break from poker - very unusual for me these days. I think the long break stemmed from a real feeling of achievement, like I can really genuinely rest now because I've reached the mountain top so to speak. Only very recently have I felt the urge to play again, and I'm looking forward to it.
I also really need to bear down a bit and study some more - I have a LearnWPT membership online which is a HUGE resource that I need to take more advantage of. I also need to continue on with UpSwings Master Class in tournament poker that I purchased awhile ago. A lot of it is fairly dry, but it's good stuff, and I paid good money for it - no excuses!
As you can read in the Pepper Street blog, Jason would go on to win the following weekend's WSOP satty, so he will be going to Vegas this summer, albeit not to the Main. If there's any way I can make it happen for me to get out there that weekend, I will. I would love to play some daily deep stacks and get my feet wet at the Rio before the big dance in July.
Failing that - without fail I will be at the Rio for the first week of July, arriving Sunday the 1st and playing a one day event on the 2nd before taking the plunge on Tuesday the 3rd in Day 1B of the Main Event.
God willing I will be around for Day 2A&B on Thursday July 5. Whether I'm in or out I will be playing a less serious one day event on the 4th, more than likely at my usual low stakes haunts of Mirage, T.I. or similar.
If I have busted on my Day 1 or if I bust on Day 2 I will be leaving Friday morning.
If I'm still around at the end of Thursday, I will be extending my stay through Sunday.
Day 3, when A&B combine with C, will be Saturday. If I am lucky enough to still be around I will pray to the poker Gods that I can last until Day 4 which is Sunday and MONEY day in the Main Event.
If I do make the money, I will again be extending my stay and also calling in sick to work - though I will certainly tell them the truth about where I am and what is going on. There are some benefits to working for the same company for 22 years - deep loyalty on my part and my employers part is not the least of them. I know they will be happy for me, and they also know that I will more than make up for lost work.
If I'm still around on Monday day 5, then we are entering a dream world where every climb up the ladder is simply gravy. I really only have a single goal going in - survive day 1. After that, each day will be only to survive the day. (Initially just to make it to the first break, and so on and so on.)
If I wake up and find myself deep into day 5, then the sky truly is the limit. I will be fatigued, but I also will be at a point where I don't have to worry about anything - I've already won and I can just play poker. I also will hopefully be able to completely jettison the nerves and the awareness that this is the biggest stage in the world in tournament poker. I was unable to do so at Thunder Valley, but I was barely there. I am fairly confident that I will be in the zone and zenned out and non-plussed at my surroundings if I'm still healthy and kicking on day 5.
Leave the whooping and hollering to others, leave the fist pumps and the celebrations to the amateurs and the brain damaged grinders that may be formidable but are missing the temperament to hold on to greatness. If I'm guaranteed a pay day I'm just going to let expectations and consciousness of place evaporate. I also plan to completely forget about money jumps until (God willing) I get to six figures. At that point ICM will be too big to ignore, but I must remember that until that point, there is no reason for me to get too concerned with pay jumps, even if it's thousands of dollars. The money is not life altering at that point, and I'm much better served putting pressure on others rather than fretting over earning 58K instead of 63K.
Yes, this is getting a bit ahead of myself - but I also believe in the power of positivity. I know it may sound strange after I wrote half a dozen paragraphs disparaging purely instinctive play - but I think pre-visualization with an expectation of a positive outcome, as long as it is contingent on making good logical and mathematically solid decisions, can only be a good thing.
We will see.
